Renee Brawdy didn’t put a lot of thought into how she filled her suitcase before leaving her Baldwin home for Pittsburgh International Airport on Saturday morning.

She didn’t even know where she’d be flying.

Brawdy, 49, was one of nearly 2,000 people selected to participate in the airport’s second public trial of its new $1.7 billion terminal, set to open by Thanksgiving.

Airport officials have touted a quicker security experience in the new terminal, where no one will have to take their shoes off or remove their computers or liquids from their bags to pass through security.

The exiting terminal has also been upgraded. It features a coffee shop and a new wayfinding system designed for people with color blindness.

Volunteers parked in the new terminal garage, unpacked their cars and filed down to the second floor to receive their instructions for the day.

Participants received fake passports and flight tickets or assignments to simulate other common airport scenarios — such as retrieving a lost bag.

“It was chaotic getting in,” Brawdy said. “But just going through everything, it’s beautiful. It looks really good. It seems bigger.”

Volunteers talk terminal, wheelchair accommodations

Bill and Karen McShane of Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood used the terminal trial as an opportunity to perform a test of their own.

The couple plans to fly to London this Thanksgiving. It will be their first time flying with their 9-month-old daughter, Willa.

“We wanted to see the new terminal,” said Bill, 38, “but also give it a trial run with (Willa) to see how traveling with a little one changes things for us.”

Dave Sherman, of Crescent Township, was eager to see how the new terminal would accommodate his wife Sue’s wheelchair.

“The old terminal was nice, but you had to do that ‘subway thing.’ It was always backed up, and you always had to wait for the train,” said Sherman, 71. “It’ll be nice not to have to do that. It’ll be closer too, because when you’re in a wheelchair, it’s sort of difficult.”

From Khalilah Carter’s perspective, the new terminal is less wheelchair friendly than the old one.

Carter’s husband, Martel Carter, is from Pittsburgh. The couple lives in Boca Raton, Fla., with their son, Eric Whitfield, who relies on a wheelchair to get around.

“I was like, ‘Oh, we go to Pittsburgh all the time,’ ” Khalilah Carter said. “Let’s do it.”

The couple has flown out of the Pittsburgh airport more than 200 times in the past 20 years, Martel Carter estimated.

Khalilah liked not having to take the tram to access the terminal. But she said her experience navigating the airport with her son’s wheelchair could have been better.

“If they are traveling by themselves and they’re in a wheelchair,” she said, “they’re going to have to have people accessible to help them. We had to go through two elevators, and that was a lot.”

The airport aims to acquaint its staff with the new terminal to ensure a smooth flying process for people of all abilities, said Daniel Bryan. Bryan is a manager at Jacobs Engineering, an aviation consultancy and program management firm that has worked on the new terminal.

“Part of these trials is also getting our staff comfortable and familiar with a new way of working in the space. This is the first time we’ve opened the new building to the old,” Bryan said, referring to the skybridge that connects the new terminal to the modernized one.

‘I felt like a kid in a candy store’

Apart from a slight difficulty finding the parking garage elevator, Shaudae Jones had no complaints about the new terminal.

“I felt like a kid in a candy store as soon as I came in and just saw how airy it is and how beautiful the skyline is,” said Jones, 39, of Moon Township. “Pittsburgh can be very dreary, so it’s nice to be somewhere well-lit and bright and new feeling.”

As the city prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of tourists for the 2026 NFL Draft in April, Jones is hopeful the refurbished airport will leave visitors with a positive Pittsburgh experience.

“Sometimes it feels like this is just an old steel town, but we’re trying,” Jones said. “I hope the newcomers can really get a feel of the city and that they enjoy their experience here in Pittsburgh.”

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